NEWS
Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
26 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Fund is long biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies with a seven year track record. Since inception in May 2006 the Fund has returned 14.24% p.a. as compared to 4.93% (S&P/ASX 200...
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26 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund (pdf format)
BENNELONG KARDINIA ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review. You are also able to view the Fund's Profile.
The Fund is long biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies with a seven year track record. Since inception in May 2006 the Fund has returned 14.24% p.a. as compared to 4.93% (S&P/ASX 200 Accum Index) with a volatility of 7.81% p.a., around one-half of the ASX volatility of 14.76% p.a. The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose 2.17% in October.
BHP Billiton, Seek, ANZ and CSL all made significant positive contributions. Share Price Index Futures (hedging long exposure), Iluka Resources and ResMed were the main detractors from performance. Once the US political gridlock passed, the net equity market exposure (including derivatives) of the Fund was increased aggressively to 71.0% (93.9% long and 22.9% short).
The Fund also has a strong focus on capital protection in negative markets. Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder have significant market experience, while the Bennelong Group provide infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution capabilities.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund (pdf format)
Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
25 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust for October 2013 has been released. The fund is characterised by very low risk with an annualised standard deviation 3.60% and a Sharpe Ratio since inception of 1.80.
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25 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager and the Fund has a long/short equity strategy typically with a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stocks broadly selected from within the ASX200. The Fund has recorded out-performance of the market since inception in September 2008 with approximately 84% of monthly performances having positive returns and the largest drawdown -1.38%
The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting and Stephen Nicholls have close to 90 years combined experience in equity markets.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund
25 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund returned a very strong 14.2% for October bringing its since inception (April 2012) annualised return to 32.83%.
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25 Nov 2013 - Totus Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is a long/short investment fund principally investing in listed entities, commodities, futures and options in Australia and internationally. The Fund is not a market neutral fund and accordingly may switch between net long positions and net short positions. The Fund may use short sales and derivatives as determined by Totus Capital. Gearing may be used to enhance returns and the Fund may be geared in excess of 100% of the Fund's Net Asset Value. There is a limit to net exposure of 150%. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund has a Sharpe ratio of 1.76 and a Sortino ratio of 5.70 indicating a sound risk-reward ratio. The comparative data for the ASX 200 Accum is 1.42 and 2.14. Top contributors to performance in October were long positions in Mint Wireless +8.6%, Google +1.65% and Dominoes Pizza +1.07%. Biggest detractors were short positions in index futures 0.61%, Fortescue Metals -0.29% and the long position in Buccaneer Energy -0.29% (The Fund no longer have a position in this company). |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Intelligent Investor Value Fund
22 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Intelligent Investor Value Fund returned 2.5% during October bringing the 12 month return to 50.89% with a volatility of 9.93% p.a.
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22 Nov 2013 - Intelligent Investor Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund has a four year track record returning 15.47% p.a. (Index 8.64% pa) since inception in October 2009 with a volatility of 13.86% p.a. (Index 12.38% p.a.) and a Sharpe Ratio of 0.83 (Index 0.42). The Manager comments 'Buoyed by investor optimism, the market has gained 24.7% over the past 12 months (including dividends). It was significant helpings of luck and, we hope, some skill that allowed the Value Fund to return 50.9% over the same period. It's been a good year, but please don't get accustomed to these returns because they won't be repeated regularly, if ever again.' |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
20 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a ten year track record and annualised net returns of over 20%.
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20 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a ten year track record and annualised net returns of over 20%.
- Since inception in January 2002 the Fund has had positive annual returns each year, including an 11.95% return in 2008 and 20.6% in 2011, both of which were negative years for the ASX200.
- The Fund's risk statistics are also sound with maximum drawdown of 12.22% and 71% positive months. Both the Sharpe Ratio at 1.27 and the Sortino ratio at 2.23, indicate a high reward-to-risk ratio.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicates the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
19 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund delivered 1.0% for October and 8.5% for the last 12 months and a beta of -0.03 with the equity market.
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19 Nov 2013 - Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The manager's investment approach is premised on the belief that fundamental factors (such as earnings, cash flow and profit growth) affect stock prices, but that the adoption of quantitative techniques (i.e. computer based models) provides an advantage in assimilating and analysing this information, and building an efficient portfolio. The Fund's portfolio is constructed to be 'Market Neutral' i.e. it aims to have little or no overall exposure to movements in the equity market. The aim of low exposure to market movements is to enhance the consistency of the portfolio's performance and to provide diversification from other market oriented investments. |
| Manager Comments | Over the last 60 months the Fund has delivered an annual return of 9.23% as compared to the ASX 200 Accumulation Index return of 11.08%. However the Fund's low risk is indicated by a volatility 8.03% (13.57% Index), maximum draw-down of 13.47% (15.13% Index) and downside deviation of 5.00 (8.95 Index). The Fund's fundamental Earnings Revisions factor rebounded during October as a raft of profit warnings including AMP and Qantas hit the market. Quality was once again favoured as risk appetite remained flat over the month. Against this the Value factor sold off slightly as investors headed back towards stronger balance sheets and more certain cash flows with dividend yield once again being sought out by the market |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
18 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic's Global Opportunities Fund has recently completed its first year of operations having returned 33.63% over 15 months with volatility of 8.71% and a Sharpe ratio of 3.08 since inception in August 2012.
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18 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
AFM has updated the Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
Key points include:
- The Fund is a global equity long/short manager with a long bias and a macro-economic overlay. The mandate allows the Fund to short sell, use derivatives and invest in assets such as commodities & currencies.
- Portfolio construction is stock selection agnostic with a bias to value based and momentum strategies. Risk management is a primary consideration in portfolio construction and the strong emphasis on risk is evidenced by the Fund's annualised standard deviation of 8.71% (10.01% ASX 200 Accum Index), maximum drawdown of 1.57% (6.72% Index) and downside deviation of 1.74 (5.30 Index).
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible investment and hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
- The Fund is an early stage, boutique, Sydney-based fund established in 2012 with experienced CIO's, and an investment team of 6 including a risk manager.
- The Board has a majority of independent members with significant risk and investment experience.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
15 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust returned 0.32% for October 2013 bringing its five year performance to 10.84% p.a. (11.08% pa ASX 200 Acc Index) with a volatility of only 3.66% (13.57% Index).
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15 Nov 2013 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's bias is likely to be net long under normal market conditions, with the core strategy being to construct a portfolio of listed equity securities priced at levels that do not adequately reflect their underlying value. The Fund will seek to boost returns and limit potential market downside by selective short selling of individual stocks which are priced at levels that are viewed as materially above their underlying value. The Fund will also use certain trading strategies both within its core portfolio (through rebalancing stock weights and overall market exposure in response to price movements) and in certain other situations (typically of a shorter-duration and/or opportunistic nature) with the objective of further increasing returns. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager comments 'In our view, a lot of the easy money in equities has been made. Those investors who backed central banks to either print money forever, or to eventually create decent economic growth, have done very well, and continued to do well in October. From here, however, it gets harder. Financial repression has driven equity valuations to levels that require a sharp acceleration in growth for stock prices to hold, and there are still many questions over the degree and sustainability of that acceleration. We believe that we are reaching a point at which the market has to make up its mind as to whether or not QE policies may finally work. While resources stocks have finally stopped falling, the compound under-performance of this group over three years certainly suggests that investors remain skeptical on growth.' |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Pengana Australian Equities Fund
14 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Fund returned 2.29% during October with a cash weighting of 22% at month-end.
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14 Nov 2013 - Pengana Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The top five holdings by value were: DUET Group, ANZ Bank, Telstra, Resmed and NAB. The Fund increased its existing holdings in Resmed (post the sharp reaction to its lower than expected turnover growth by the US market), McMillan Shakespeare, Summerset, Mermaid Marine and David Jones. In addition the Fund acquired a new holding in new listing Australian Industrial REIT (a well-managed high quality industrial property group on an attractive yield). The Fund's exposure to non Australian dollar earnings streams (inclusive of companies with global earnings profiles such as Resmed and Fox Group, NZ based companies and US dollar exposure) stood at 22%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Insync Global Titans Fund
13 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund returned 1.47% over October and 20.7% over the previous twelve months with a very low volatility of 6.12%.
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13 Nov 2013 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Signs of modest economic recovery continue and the US earnings season has been broadly supportive. Although revenue growth is still hard to come by earnings have more often than not surprised on the upside, particularly in the more cyclical sectors such as Consumer Discretionary. Forward guidance by companies is still generally conservative and share prices have risen faster than earnings, making markets look fully priced. The Fund's unit price increased by 1.47% in October, with the largest positive contributions coming from our holdings in CR Bard, Reckitt Benckiser, Wyndham Hotels, British Sky Broadcasting and Sanofi. The main detractors for the month included Coach and Dr Pepper Snapple. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
